While you have the light, believe in the light

​Reflecting on Palm Sunday this morning, I think about Jesus entering Jerusalem, and how the bible tells us as Jesus drew nearer to the city - he cried.

Here is this large crowd of people, celebrating his arrival - a star, a hero in the making - and he weeps. Not the reaction you'd expect from many of today's celebrities.

I'm thinking about these times we're in. How we are looking for a hero to step in and save the day - save the WORLD. And what reality tells us: the collective actions of the most powerful leaders in the world, could do nothing to contain the impact a virus has had on our health and economy and our fears and anxieties.

And as we continue to search for the leader who will be the hero, the one who will step forward and ultimately contain it - I hear Jesus weeping, "would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace."

In the book of John in chapter 12, when the palm waving crowd celebrating Jesus' arrival begins to think this guy isn't who they thought he was, that he isn't there to save the day, and they begin to question Jesus, we read:

“We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

Oh, I get where the crowd was coming from. I've been in this darkness. I've turned to a lot of earthly props and kings in my life in search for some way out - in search of some form of light that would save the day. A darkness not the same, but, surely not totally unlike the darkness many might be experiencing right now.

And believe it or not, I've heard Jesus weeping over me. I've heard him saying while you still have the chance, grab the light. And I did. All I know is, for me, these words are so true. In the darkness I had no clue where I was going. Oh I thought I did, but now that I walk in this light, I realize I absolutely and just so blindly had no clue.

As we go through unprecedented challenges in our lives, I can still see Jesus riding into my life on a donkey. Not as a hero, not a celebrity with a trailer full of merch, but as a humble servant, with and embrace full of peace and reassurance. I hear him now like I heard him then: while you have the light, believe in the light.

Every day, I hear it. While you have the light, believe in the light. And it's in that belief, every day, that I discover the things that make for peace.